I Sleep

$2USD or more

about

A setting for voice and cello of text from The Song of Songs. The text is a dream sequence that is both sexy and anxious, and the setting takes its cues from the swinging mood and eerie imagery, while drawing on a wide variety of vocal techniques.

lyrics

I sleep, but my heart wakes:
it is the voice of my beloved that knocks saying,
Open to me, my sister, my love,my dove, my undefiled:
for my head is filled with dew,and my locks with the drops of the night.
I have put off my coat how shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet how shall I defile them?
My beloved put his hand in by the hole of the door,
and my bowels stirred for him.
I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dripped with myrrh, sweet smelling myrrh,upon the handles of the lock.
I opened to my beloved;but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake:
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,
that I am sick of love